Baking for Monsters
by EllenAllen
Summary: A revamp of "Red Velvet Cake": Max Gilbert doesn't like anyone. That's what she makes out like. Her parents are dead, her aunt is dead, her brother is a drugie, her keeper is a drunk, and her sister is absent from most of her life. Her shell starts to crack, however, when two men start to vie for her affections. Elena calls them monsters. Max calls them angels. KolxOCxKlaus
1. Chapter 1

Art. The expression of feelings through the creation of something. Weather it be music, a painting, a poem, or a cake. Art lasts for as long as the message it conveys does. When the message is no longer needed, the art fades into the oblivion of one's mind.

My name is Max Gilbert. I'm their youngest sister at sixteen years old. Jeremy may be the the artist in the sense of drawing, but my art is my own. I make cakes for big events in our town of Mystic Falls and sometimes lands beyond this one. Carol Lockwood usually hires me to make the cakes for all of her events, and I do things for peoples birthdays and some other events as well. Last year I did the cakes for the Masquerade ball, the Founders Parties, and other freelance cakes that I am equally as proud of.

When my parents died, I kind of shut down. I still am shut down, really. I only talk to a special handful of people: Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Damon, Stefan, Matt, Jeremy, Alaric and Tyler. Even they can't manage too many words out of me on some days. At school it's a whole different game. People don't know how to handle the girl with the dead family, so I make it easy for them. I don't speak to them and they don't speak to me. With family, we all know what loss feels like, so words of grief and sympathy don't seem so hollow.

When Jenna died, my silence and peoples aversion just got worse. I talk less and less. When her birthday passed recently, I think the only communication I had for two weeks was grunts and nods. After her death, Elena, Jeremy, and Alaric are the only ones I share my voice with. However, Elena went into a depression after Stefan left. That left me to Jeremy and Alaric. Alaric spends all of his time with Damon so that leaves Jeremy. Jeremy started working so it left me to myself a lot. I hang around the house and bake. I don't speak, I don't acknowledge existence, and I don't interact. I just am. Sometimes I wish I wasn't.

Elena is disappearing all of the time. It started when Damon and Stefan came into town. I have to, "Stay inside!" and "Don't invite anyone in!". I am not as blind as my sister would like to believe I am. I spend my time watching the news. I know that there are odd things happening in this town. I notice that she is out a lot and at the parties where people die. She is connected somehow. She and her group of friends. They are involved. The only reason that I listen to them is because I trust her. Elena, before the crash, would let me live my own life with little precaution. She would just tell me the basic things that every sister would tell the younger ones of their family. Now she wants me to do certain things. The fear that laces her voice sometimes, as well as the fear that takes over everyone else's faces is enough to scare me into listening.

Elena hangs around with Stefan and Damon. Both of them love her. I just hope that she realizes that Damon is the perfect man for her. He's a ruff and tumble guy on the outside, but his eyes when they gaze on her are filled with nothing short of adoration. He cares for her when she's down, she keeps him in line, and they both have a sense of duty to each other that can't be denied. I just hope that Elena wakes up and realizes it before Damon decides he's done enough waiting.

Damon and Stefan give off a vibe that is... off. There's something not right about them. Whenever I'm in the same room as them there is an unexplained urge to leave. To never be in their presence because death walks in their shadow. Whenever they're around, I feel like a gazelle being stalked by a lion. I know it's out there, watching, waiting. I just don't know when it's going to strike death into my heart.

After a while, more and more people started acting like Elena. They were overprotective about things that I have been taught since before kindergarten. After a while, I was the only one who was being told stay in the house, don't open the door, don't let anyone in, don't take off your anklet, and don't look anyone in the eye. Everyone else is somehow now protected. I don't understand, but I think that I will someday when I become one of the protected ones.

The whole purpose of baking cakes is the love of doing it, but the money that comes with it is nothing to not appreciate. I make a lot of money making those cakes, and every dime of it I put away for my trip. My senior year, I'm planning a trip to Italy. My dream land, my utopia, and my salvation. Italy is the light at the end of the tunnel. I just feel like that as soon as I take that trip, as soon as I'm out of high school, a new chapter of my life is going to start. I'm not going to be the sad little girl who lost her parents and her aunt. I'm going to move on to a life that is full of possibility. I'm going to grieve now, and I'm going to live in my near future. In my light at the end of the tunnel.

I placed the last piece of fondant on the second tier and stepped back to appreciate my work. Its a three tier round cake with chocolate and vanilla checkerboard and butter cream icing that has pink, neon green, and black fondant covering it. An eighteen made of black modeling chocolate rests on the top tier. The pink bottom tier has green and black stars in varying shapes and sizes. The green tier has pink and black circles covering it so that there is an even view of pink and circles. The final black tier has pink and green stripes on it in random distances. I really hope my sister likes it. I always get nervous if someone is going to like my cake, family or not.

After I finished admiring my work, I moved to go up the stairs to Jer's room. I knocked on his white door three quick, short times before going in without him saying anything. My twin brother was lounging around on his bed with his earphones pulled over his head and his iPod in his hand. He was dressed in jeans and a green white and black plaid shirt. His hair was messy and slightly pulled back from his face by his large headphones. His room was messy, as usual. It was the typical boy room with clothes strewn everywhere and posters of women in bikinis on his walls.

I leaned against the door frame with one hand on the doorknob and the other on the door. I poked my head in and just looked at him. I saw his brown eyes crack open before reaching me. "What?"

I tapped my wrist where a watch should go. I had already asked him a few hours ago if he could help me get the cake to Elena's party at the Salvatore boarding house and he agreed. All I had to do was drag his lazy ass behind the drivers seat.

He groaned before throwing his legs over the side of the bed. "I'm coming." Jeremy used to be a drug user. Big time. My largest fear for him would be that I woke up and there would be a needle stuck in his arm, or a joint in his hand and he wouldn't be breathing. Just staring blankly up at the ceiling in death.

I heard the trump of his feet as they made their way down the stairs behind me. I walked over to the cake and stood beside it. My black lace flats went perfectly with my dress. It's a black simple thing with no exterior additions such as lace or sequins that hugged my torso until my waist and flowed out from there. There were no sleeves, but the cut rose to my neck. A thick light blue ribbon was loosely tied around my waist and a floppy bow rested on my lower back. My silver anklet and necklace sparkled in the light of the kitchen.

I took one side of the tray that the cake was on and he took the other. Together we maneuvered through our living room, out the door, down the stairs and to the awaiting car.

I carefully set it in the back seat and slid myself in next to it. My curls bounced against my shoulders and my knee length dress rode up only slightly when I got comfortable. During the entire car ride, I was silent and watching my cake. We were an hour early to the party because Caroline wanted to make sure everything was perfect, so she asked for a cake that she could approve before being put on display. As soon as I saw Elena's reaction, I was going to leave since I'm under the notion that alcohol and human interaction are going to be a big part of tonight.

We arrived at the boarding house and I slid out of the back. Jeremy got to the other side and pushed on the board the cake sat on until I was able to slip my fingers underneath. I got a good grip and awaited him to come out to help me carry it in. We made our way up to the door that I quickly opened with one hand. My twin and I made our way through the house until we found a good spot to lay the cake down.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a blonde woman before I heard her squeal. I slightly smiled and put my hands behind my back. My left started to wring the wrist of my right as my right started to have my thumbs nails dug into it. I may be friends with all of them, but I don't get close to people. I try not to, at least.

"Wow. I love it!" Elena said halfheartedly. She had a smile on her face but I could tell it was fake. There was a sadness in her eyes that I would never be able to help her fix. the only one that would be able to pick up the pieces was Stefan, and he's been long gone for a long time. She must have him on her mind.

"Oh my God it looks amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Caroline squealed once again rather loudly in my ear. I simply nodded my head.

The final person to enter the room and comment on my work of art was Tyler. He came up to me and squeezed me tight to him. My muscles were rigid, but I hugged him back."Nice job kid." He said. I smiled just as the doorbell rang to announce the first party goer.

I pointed to myself before pointing towards the door to indicate that I was going home. Caroline's face fell. "You can't just leave! It's your sisters birthday, and you're dressed so nice!" I smiled and shook my head towards the ground. I looked at her and she sighed in defeat.

I walked up to Elena and gave her a hug before I started walking towards the door. Jeremy didn't follow me. I tilted my head in the direction of the exit. "I'm staying." My face fell only slightly before I nodded and made my way out. When I pulled the door open I forgot about the people at the door. Shock graced their features when they saw that it was the silent sad girl opening the way for them. I smiled at them and stood aside for them to enter. After the last one went through I made my way out of the house and onto the road where a long walk awaited me.


	2. Chapter 2

This morning I decided that I'm going on a hiking trip. My head is in need of some serious clearing as my thoughts have been turning down a darker road lately. Not so dark that there is no way out, but dark enough that I have to open a window and air out my head. Not only that, but I needed inspiration for a cake that someone just ordered for their wedding. The two had met in the Smoky Mountains and wanted to incorperate that into their cake. I said hey, why not go see it in person? The need to escape is perfectly coinciding with the work I have to do.

So I'm going to hike. The mountians are far away though. I don't think about it too much. The mountains are supposed to be beautiful and I want so very badly to get out of the house.

I continued to stare at the ceiling above me, blinking only every once in a while. One leg was on the couch, the other foot on the ground and my arm was behind my head. The music pumping in my ears was loud, but very, very welcome. Black Sabbath's War Pigs always seems to hit the right spot.

The trudging of feet on the stairs is what brought me out of my trance. Jeremy walked down the stairs and into the living room. I sat up on the couch and placed my chin on the back. "Jer." He abruptly stopped walking and turned his head toward me. "Want to go to the Smokey Mountains?"

"Can't today. Sorry." I nodded toward him before I started to sink back into the couch. "Max," I peeked over the top to look at him. "If you're going to go, bring someone with you. You never know who's in those woods." Jeremy gave me a look. The big brother knows best look that I get frequently. I sometimes get that look when he himself has done something bad that I am about to partake in.

I nodded and completely sunk back into the couch. I pulled my phone off the coffee table and unlocked it. My fingers found the spots on the touchscreen that led me to my contacts list and I scrolled down. Damon and Elena are out. Elena already said that they were going to do something today. Caroline would never even dream of going out into the woods. I don't think she owns a piece of clothing that she would be willing to bring out into the mountains. Jeremy said that he didn't want to go, and Stefan was out of the question. Alaric was going with Damon and Elena wherever that was. That left one person.

I tapped on his name before typing, "Hey. Want to go hiking in the mountains?"

Tyler responded in seconds.

"Which mountains?"

"Great Smoky."

"Can't. Have something I have to take care of. Fair warning my battery is dying."

"Oh. Okay."

"Bring someone with you."

"No one wants to go."

"Text Caroline."

"Her? In the Woods?"

"Fair point. Wait for another day."

"I want to do it today. If I wait I won't do it."

I didn't get a response from him after the last one.

I pulled my lazy self off of the couch and made my way up the stairs. I pulled my bag out of the closet and packed a few things inside. There was a camera, a sketchbook, some drawing utensils, and a book in the bag before I left. I snatched a set of keys from the table and escaped out the door.

I bought my baby about a year ago. She's a burnt orange 1970 Dodge Super Bee. I'm still working on her. It took all of my savings from kindergarten to now to buy her when she was a beaten up piece of crap. I have managed to get the dents out and wash her up as much as I can, but a student budget relying on birthday money only gets one so far. I only just got her running with the cash that I accumulated from my past sixteenth birthday. The paint is still chipped and a lot of pieces need re-chroming but I swear that when I get a job I'm going to dedicate all of my money to her. Mom and Dad thought it was a stupid idea, but I told myself before they died that I would get it running.

I sat myself in the drivers seat and turned the key. The engine barely turned over, but I managed to back out of the driveway and onto the road.

Free at last, free at last, thank God I'm free at last.

The drive out of state and to the mountains was quite the trek. I didn't think that my baby would make it all the way, but she did. Now I just have to get her back to Virginia.

I parked and locked her up before making my way into the entrance area. I payed my fee for the national park before going into the woods.

It was beautiful. The trees were tall and a lush green with sunlight coming between the branches. There was the echoing of birds as they started chirping and a smile crossed my face. There was the quiet babble of a brook ahead of me and the humming of insects in the air. There was a dry feeling to the dirt beneath my sneakers that was only slightly spongy enough to leave faint tracks behind. I spun around to take everything in and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and let it out. The air is crisp and fresh. More fresh than anything I have tasted in a long time. I took another breath and felt every piece of cluttered material in my head be pushed behind a black curtain where I couldn't think about it for the time being.

I made my way along a narrow path about a mile until I hit a stream that was stunning. There were rocks spread throughout and a waterfall about fifty yards to my right. The clear liquid made its way around and through the rocks sometimes carrying fish with it. There were the remnants of a bridge explaining why there is a path and no way to get across. Bugs were on the top of the water. I took out my map that was supplied to me when I came in and saw that I would have to cross the stream, and the cliff ledge would be half a mile away.

The only place there was to cross was right in front of me. And it was a line of rocks. Wet, slippery rocks that were easy to fall off of. The farther part of the Smoky Mountains was more easily connected to this part by a bridge a mile away from here.

I took a deep breath and stepped onto the first rock. There was green moss growing on it that made the rocks even more slippery. I had one foot on the ground and one foot on the rock. I quickly brought over my other foot. My legs wobbled a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. I did the same for the next rock, and the next rock, until I came upon the other side without even getting my shoelaces wet. From the last rock to the land was considerably farther than the space between the rocks. I can't stretch that far. My leg muscles tensed, and I jumped across.

The bottom of my shoes shuffled across the dirt path while I moved forward. The green forest moved past me as we continued down the way.

Elena, Damon, and Alaric are doing something today. Together. They do a lot together.

Breath in. Breath out.

Elena, our friends and family that is. There never seems to be any Max involved. I don't understand.

Breath In. Breath Out.

Have I done something to make them hate me? I know that my silence can be a little embarrassing at social events, but I'm not that bad.

BREATH in. BREATH out.

People understand, don't they? I mean, it's not like I'm a total disgrace. I can be a good kid, right?

BREATH IN. BREATH OUT.

I know I'm not pretty. I know I don't have the best body. But that shouldn't deter people, right? My hair doesn't look that bad does it?

BREATH IN BREATH OUT.

Oh God. Does everyone secretly hate me? Why do they keep hiding things? I'm not stupid. They're hiding something. There's something that their keeping from me and it has to be related to all these dead people.

BREATH IN BREATH OUT. BREATH IN BREATH OUT.

Have they been killing people? Are they inolved in something? Jeremy was in drugs. Did he get in too deep? Should I be worried?

**BREATH IN BREATH OUT. BREATH IN BREATH OUT. BREATH IN BREATH OUT.**

God they're all going to end up dead! I'm going to find them all dead! Their going to be shot in the head and dead! I can't find them dead! They can't die! What if their dead already? What do I do if they're dead already?

_**BREATH IN BREATH OUT BREATH IN BREATH OUT BREATH IN BREATH OUT BREATH IN BREATH OUT BREATH IN BREATH OUT BREATHINBREATHOUTBREATHINBREATHOUTBREATHINBREATHOUT**_

**_BREATH_**

_Clear your mind._

I paused and grasped the bark of a tree. I caught my breath and squeezed my eyes. There was a dizziness in my brain that I don't know how to quite tame. My feet feel like they could slip out from under me. My throat feels like it could close.

And it does. My breathing stops. But not because of the panic attack. My breath is caught in my chest because of the sight that lays before me.

The ledge gave way to a view of the greatest proportions of the Appalachian mountains. The green roaming giants stood proudly against the earth. It seemed as though their entire being was emanating a song in deep baritone that was ages older than myself, or any being on this planet. The blue sky was graced with clouds that were a fluffy white. They had no inclination that they were going to cry today, or any other day green trees that were on the mountain tops were only just starting to show the signs of the season with the golden, orange, and red leaves peaking through the green.

I sat myself down on the ground at the very edge and looked down. The ledge I was seated at must be at least thirty feet high. A fall that doesn't want to happen today. My hands pulled out the sketchbook and camera that was residing in my bag. I opened the book to a clean page and claimed one of the pencils in my box and started drawing. Two sketches later my camera captured landscapes that couldn't be missed by the universe above.

"What are you doing here?"

I jumped and spun around. My brown curls wrapped around my head. Stefan Salvatore was glaring at me ten feet away at the edge of the woods. His face was calm and flat. There was no emotion on any of his facial features.

"What are you doing here?" He asked me again. His fists were clenched at his sides. His fingers tightening and untightening slowly.

"I was just-" My voice got caught in my throat. It took me a second to find it again. "Where have you been? Why are you here?" My voice was crackly from disuse but I got the words out.

"That's my buisiness." His glare intensified. "You need to leave. Right now. It's dangerous to be alone." His hands clenched one last time before staying clenched.

I got an disbelieving look on my face, I'm sure. "No one else would come. Stefan where have you been?" My words became quieter than they already were. I could feel in my gut that he would hear me anyway.

His glare intensified.

"Go home Ma-"

Then there was a growl from at the bottom of the cliff. I jumped again and toward the edge of the cliff. At the bottom there was a person in a red flannel shirt. He looked deranged.

"Leave now."

"Stefan I won't leave without you."

"Go now Max!" Stefan's demeanor and the power behind the inflection in his voice is what made me move. What made me run was when the man in flannel reached the top of the ledge.

I threw my pencils and sketchbook in my bag, pulled it over my shoulders and ran. It's a mile and a half to get to my car. I think I can make it. I hope I can make it. I crashed through bushes and tried my hardest to stay on a path that seemed to go on forever.

It had to be a good five minutes before I found the stream. I turned my head over my shoulder and found nothing behind me. I bent over and clutched my knees breathing hard. My mind was whirling with what just happened, but I don't have time for that. I have to get to my car.

The obstacle before me known as the stream was daunting to say the least.

I slipped the pack off of my back and with a heafty chuck managed to land it across, without getting it wet thank God. Now I had to get myself across. Only this time, I had to jump from solid ground onto the slippery rock that was too far away from me to step on.

I missed completely. I think I felt my foot touch the rock, but that was it.

My legs were completely submersed in water. The current of the stream was strong, but not enough to sweep me away. The three and a half foot deep stream was deep, but I was taller.

A growl ripped through the forest and I tried to go faster, I really did. The rocks underneath made me fall though, and I went under the water for only a brief moment before I was making my way to the other side of the stream again.

I was on my feet with my bag back on my back in a second. I ran with a renewed purpose as another growl broke the silence of the forest. Silence was definitely the way to describe it. All the birds had stopped chirping. All the noices of the forest ceased. I think that I broke my personal record for the mile in that one sprint in the woods back to my car.

I jumped into my car and calmed my breathing. The air was still hard to come to my lungs, and it was cold. My clothes are sticking to my skin and my hair is matted to my head, the curls slowly coming back in windblown bunches from my run. My whole body is quivering and I don't know if I should drive home. What was going through my head even faster though, was what just happened. What kind of people are my sister and her friends involved in?

I was tempted to call her, but direct answers from the phone seemed more suitable. She answered on the first ring. "Hello?"

"H-h-hey." I was shivering so hard. It's so, so very cold.

"Max? What's wrong? Why are your teeth chattering?" she asked frantically. She always worries. One only worries when they have something to fear.

"I-I-I'm in the Sm-m-m-oky M-m-m-mountains. I-I-I-I f-f-f-fell in a r-r-river." I said.

"What do you mean you're in the Smoky Mountains? Are you alright? I'm in the area, I'll come and get you."

"I-I-I h-h-have my car. I d-d-don't know if I should drive h-h-home." I stuttered out.

"Where are you?"

"I-I-I'm at the entrance." I squeezed my eyes shut. A long and hard shiver racked through my entire being. The sun had gone down, so there was no light at all to even try to warm me up. My old car didn't have any heating either.

"I'll be there in ten minutes. Twenty minutes tops." If she gets here in that time, I think I might have hypothermia, but I'll survive."

"E-E-E-Elena. I-I-I-I saw S-S-Stefan in the mountains. H-h-h-he was there. A-A-A-And there w-w-was this m-man. It was s-s-so strange."

The line went dead and I sat. I gripped the wheel tightly and shivered. The clothes were still stuck to my being and I had a huge headache coming on.

She came up in her car with Alaric driving, Elena in the passenger seat, and Damon in the back. Elena hopped out of the car and ran up to me. "Max!" She opened the door and hugged me. I wanted to hug her back, but I was so cold. I don't want to move. The body heat she was throwing off was fantastic. "Oh my God you're freezing! Damon!" Damon gracefully came out of the car and made his way to us. He came to my door before putting one arm under my knees and one behind my back. The black haired man pulled me out of the car and sat me in the back seat of my baby. I pulled my knees up to my chest and tried to conserve body heat as much as I could. I heard the door shut on the other side of me and in front of me. There was a pair of arms wrapped around me pulling me to their chest when the car turned over and rumbled to a start. They were so warm. So, so very warm. My last thought before falling asleep was that I left my camera up on that cliff with Stefan and the mystery beast in flannel.

With Klaus and Stefan: Stefan's POV

I was standing next to Klaus in the site, looking over the bodies everywhere. Ray was laying three feet from me along with the other pack members littered all over the site. I had Max's camera in hand, seeing as I had no pockets. I figured that if I left it somewhere in the mountains I would never be able to get it back to her.

Klaus was ranting and grieving over the idea of his hybrid army. He finally simmered down enough to notice the camera in my hand. "Why do you have a camera?" He asked with his British accent.

"I ran into an old friend from Mystic Falls." I responded. I quietly turned the camera over in my hands. It's a cheap device. Most likely the only one that she could afford at the time but it works just the same. There were mild scratches on it from use, no doubt some from today, and dirt from where she dropped it.

"So someone has been tracking us again? I thought you taught them their lesson." His glare was now turned on me in full.

"I did." I returned his glare and defended myself. "This person hasn't been tracking us. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Really now? Do you really expect me to believe that you run into a person from Mystic Falls and they weren't trying to find you?" The hybrid took a defensive stance with his fists balled by his sides.

"Yes. She has nothing to do with any of this."

"Is that a fondness I hear in your voice?" There was a malicious glint in his eye that no one can miss. I didn't answer him. Klaus laughed at me and relaxed, but only slightly. "And what would this girls name be who has gained the affections of the great ripper?"

"Max Gilbert. Elena's younger sister."


End file.
